


Glance, Look, Stare

by Dain



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Autistic Character, F/F, Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-13
Updated: 2014-09-13
Packaged: 2018-02-17 04:52:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2297249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dain/pseuds/Dain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ty Lee’s always seen her, always looked, and she knows full well that Mai isn’t the emotionless mystery everyone makes her out to be. All you have to do is really look at her, all of her, and pay attention to what you see.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glance, Look, Stare

People like to make generalizations about Mai.

She never smiles. She’s emotionless. She’s always angry. She doesn’t care. She’s cruel. She’s frightening. She’s heartless.

It makes Ty Lee want to scream.

The thing is, no one really bothers to look at Mai. She’s spent so much time blending in to the background at her parents’ behest that even now she finds it difficult to be noticed, and so people see nothing more than her shadow, their eyes taking in just a brief impression of the quiet girl standing on the sidelines.

Ty Lee’s always seen her, always looked, and she knows full well that Mai isn’t the emotionless mystery everyone makes her out to be. All you have to do is really look at her, all of her, and pay attention to what you see.

Mai flutters her fingers when she’s happy, and taps them when she’s nervous. Her voice raises in volume when she’s angry, but it also raises when she’s excited – the difference is that her eyes narrow in the former situation and widen in the latter. Mai’s blunt, but not in cruelty; introverted, but not uncaring. She won’t welcome you into her inner circle unless you’ve proven that you’re trustworthy, but she won’t dislike you without reason, either. She’s calm, but not passionless; Ty Lee is always willing to recount the story of Mai teaching herself to throw knives, the way she poured all of her energy into finding scrolls about different types of blades, the advantages and disadvantages of each, how to throw them, how to conceal them on your body…

She used to be stronger in her shows of emotions, smiling more and flapping her hands instead of just her fingers, but as a child she was never able to distinguish between which methods of expressing herself were considered acceptable and which were not. The result was an outwardly withdrawn young woman, obedient and quiet in some situations but unwilling to be silent in others. Mai is conservative in her bearing but not in her feeling, and it’s not so much what she feels as how she shows it that leaves people off-balance.

But Ty Lee’s used to being passed over and simplified into a mere curiosity, and she knows how it feels to be unmade by another person’s glance. She knows how to measure the amount and type of attention that Mai wants, knows how to read when she’s overwhelmed and needs to go somewhere quiet, knows when she needs reassurance that she’s still there, still an individual in spite of what people tell her she is. Mai’s needs are different from her own in quantity but often very similar in quality, and so the two of them are able to take care of each other in turns, in ways that few other people care to; Mai knows that a smile does not always mean happiness, and Ty Lee knows that a frown does not always mean displeasure, and together they’re able to make sure that someone is always looking.


End file.
